My friend and college, José Luis Gamboa and I have been working together on another project concerning English and Spanish literature (how strange!) during the last term of our school year.

The main aim of this project has been not only to encourage imagination and creativity but also to improve reading, writing and speaking skills.

As far as we are concerned, we have been reading about The Brönte family, Charlotte, Emily, Ann…but on this occasion the students have played the role of the different characters; they have been able to express their feelings and emotions and the story about their lives has been retold from their own point of view.

We have been using WhatsApp and Twitter, social networks that are familiar to all of us, WhatsApp for the project, Twitter to communicate with one another.

In short, we wanted them to get involved in the knowledge creation process by working together and go a bit further so as to achieve meaningful learning.

When writing an opinion essay, we present our point of view on a particular topic and try to convince the readers that our opinion is the best one. That's why we must include reasons and examples that support our view.

Paragraph plan

Useful language

In my opinion, ... / In my view.../ From my point of view
It seems to me that ...
I think that ... / I consider that .../ I believe that ... /I feel that ...
As I see it ... / As far as I'm concerned ...
Personally,...
I (strongly/ completely) agree/ disagree with ..
As for ...
It's clear (to me) that / It's obvious that ...
If you ask me ...
I'm sure/ convinced that ...

Linking words and expressions

Use them in order to connect your ideas and show how they are related to one another.

Example

Studying languages at school

Studying languages at school is very
important from my point of view.

English and French, for example, are
different from subjects like Maths or Chemistry. As I see it, they are funnier
and more dynamic.

Some people think that languages are
boring or useless. Maybe, they are just not interested, and that’s the point. It
seems to me that you have to be motivated to learn, and that happens with
everything in life.

It’s clear that learning languages gives
you a lot of opportunities in your life. In my opinion, it’s very useful. For
example, if you can speak English you’ll have more chances to get a job here in
Spain, or maybe you can apply for a job in the UK or the USA.

Personally, I believe that the teachers
should use games and funny activities related to languages to motivate the
students.

In conclusion, studying languages is
essential for our future and, at the same time, we can have much fun.